Prayers for Transgender Justice

In March 2016, the Transforming Hearts Collective partnered with the Religious Institute for a National Weekend of Prayer for Transgender Justice. To kick things off, we wrote a prayer and reached out to some of our fellow trans faith leaders from many spiritual traditions to offer prayers from their traditions. We share them here in love and gratitude.

GENERAL PRAYER

Offered by the Transforming Hearts Collective

Spirit of life and love that resides within and among us, we enter this moment with all that we are, with an open heart, and with a love for justice.

We hold in love and prayer all transgender people, so many of whom live under the weight of violence, fear, and intolerance. We hold in love and prayer all the ways that transgender people have survived and thrived in a hostile world. We hold in love and prayer all who recognize the significance of gender justice for all people.

We who believe in freedom will not rest until it comes. We pray for the dawn of a new day when the very humanity of trans people is no longer called into question or ignored. We pray that physical, emotional, and spiritual violence will come to an end. We pray that a spirit of compassion and care will fill us to overflowing, that we may have the capacity to listen, learn, and grow not only in our awareness but also in our willingness to act. We pray for teachers, spiritual leaders, social workers, lawyers, and all people who heed the call to support trans liberation, trans leadership, and trans visibility. May they ultimately lean into the Light of truth and justice, offering hope to Trans and gender nonconforming youth and adults.

On this day, we commit and recommit to creating a world where people of all genders know peace, love, and justice. We commit and recommit to living lives of compassion and care for all of humanity. We commit and recommit to the healing work of relationship-building that will help every person know, no matter their gender or sexuality, that they are loved and valued.

BUDDHIST/ANCESTRY PRAYER

Offered by Fresh! White, Minister of Love, mindfulness practitioner, student of Buddhist philosophy and spirituality

Dear Ancestor Spirits: Please hear our prayer.

Remind us to breathe deep in each moment, touching our lives from within, as we honor you there.

Remind us to reach back to you who were here long before we began counting time, or needing labels to describe ourselves as human beings.

You goddesses, warriors, and kings; healers, priests, shamans, two-spirit; family and friends; share with us your wisdom, that we may know the power of community, and understand we are already ONE, we need only self-love and compassion so that we can truly let each other in!

Dear Spirit/Creator/Higher Power/Goddess/God/Universe/Mother Earth…You who are calling us forward: Remind us that we are deserving and there is enough! Enough space in this world, in the hearts of this world, and in our communities, for All of Us to be, do, and have All our heart’s “true” desires: To be safe, Loved and happy as our authentic spiritual selves!

Dear Spirits, Collectively: We call on All of you at this time, to come and breathe with and through us, as we walk our paths towards equity and freedom. Remind us that each breath is not just for this moment (the most important one), it’s also for our future! With you, we remember that no matter where we are, when we can be truly present, we can and do create our future.

We give thanks to you Dear Spirits for bringing us this far; for calling forth our authenticity so that we can be free to clear the hurdles in our paths for our own taking, and also for our youth, and seniors, those of us at higher risk of inner and outer harm, the lonely. With your guidance, we can work together to create a more just and equitable; safe, strong and healthy life experience for those within, and beyond the transgender spectrum; for all beings.

In remembrance of our sisters, brothers and others lost to violence in all forms, Please Hear Our Prayers! Ashe! Aho! Amen! Blessed Be!

CHRISTIAN PRAYER

Offered by Rev. Debra J. Hopkins, Black trans woman, minister at Sacred Souls Community Church, Charlotte, NC

Loving Creator, Let the rain come and wash away the ancient grudges, the bitter hatreds held and nurtured over generations. Let the rain wash away the memory of the heart, and neglect. Then Oh God, let the sun come out and fill the sky with beautiful rainbows.

Let the warmth of the Sun heal us wherever we are broken. Let It burn away the fog so that each of us sees each other clearly. So that we can move beyond labels, beyond accents, gender, sexual orientation, or skin color. Let the warmth and brightness of the sun melt our selfishness. So that we can share the joy and sorrow of our neighbors. And let the light of the sun be so strong that we will see all people as our neighbors.

Let the Earth, nourished by rain, bring forth flowers to surround us with your beauty, and let the mountains teach our hearts to reach upward to heaven. Then, Dear God, grant us comfort, give us peace, and allow us strength to enable us to Stand up, Fight for, and be a Voice for Equality. In Jesus’ name, Amen!

JEWISH PRAYER 

Offered by Rabbi Emily Aviva Kapor-Mater, radical transfeminist rabbi, author, and activist, Seattle, WA

אלהינו ואלהי אבותינו ואמותינו, ברך את קהילתינו הטרנס הקדושה, את כל עדת הטרנס, ואת כל העוברים על גבולי החיים. תן לנו חיים ושמחה מאת אוצר ברכותך, ופרוש עלינו סוכת שלומך. יהי בכוחינו לברוא ולהתברא, ליצור ולהתיצר, ולקיים רצונך לאהוב את הבריאות ולרדוף את השלום. למדנו אמת וצדק, כי אתה הוא מגן לכל הדכופים. שלח הצלה וצדקה לכל עדתינו, ויהי חסדך עמנו כאשר היה עם אבותינו ואמותינו. ברוך אתה, האל העושה צדקה ושלום לכל העוברים על גבולי החיים.

Our God and God of our ancestors, we ask your blessing upon our community, the holy assembly of all transgender people, and upon all who cross over the boundaries of life. Grant us life and happiness from your abundance of blessings, and spread over us the shelter of Your peace. Grant us the strength to create and to be created, to form and to be formed, and to fulfill Your will to love all creation and to pursue peace. Teach us truth and justice, for You are a shield for all the oppressed. Send relief and righteousness to all our community, and may Your goodness be with us as it was with our ancestors. Blessed are You, God who makes justice and peace for all who cross over the boundaries of life.

MUSLIM PRAYER

Offered by Qasima Wideman, Queer Black Muslim, Durham, NC

In the name of Allah, the Lover, the Gentle, the Kind, grant us in our souls a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church, where we may kneel before an altar where no walls and no names exist. Unite our hearts together and guide us out of darkness into freedom and light. Grant us the power of our ancestors who protected one another from oppression, and who helped one another to stand in your light. Anoint us with patience, strengthen our footsteps and grant us victory over those who reject us. Break our kindred in prisons free of their shackles and reunite our families. Cleanse and heal the souls of our fallen trans kindred with water, ice and snow; and expand their entry into your Garden. Open a path for us to freedom that leaves no one behind.

NATIVE TRADITIONALIST PRAYER

Offered by Pastor Lynn Young, Two Spirit of Lakota heritage, Seminarian at Chicago Theological Seminary

Great Mystery, We lift up our prayers in the ancient ways of our people. Lead us to the path of wisdom and understanding; let all of us live together in sacred kinship.

We hold in love and sacredness all transgender people as sacred children of your creation, who all too often live in fear under the weight of violence and close-mindedness. We hold in love and prayer all of the ways in which transgender people have survived and thrived in this world designed by you for peace, but that exists now in hostility. We hold in love and prayer all who have ever felt the crushing weight of oppression, the invisibility of disregard, or the searing pain that results from denials of their very humanity.

We pray for trans people everywhere, your sacred children. Remind them, and remind us all, that when we gaze at our reflection in a still pond or a mirror’s surface a manifestation of your divine spirit gazes back at us. We pray that the energy of the four winds, and the power of our ancestors bring the spirit of wisdom and compassion to leaders, advocates, and trans people.

As we walk the path of sacredness each day, guide our feet to what is good, wise, and right; help us walk in a good way. May we all be agents of wisdom and compassion, offering hope to trans and gender nonconforming youth that is too often hard to come by.

Great Spirit, fill us with light, warm us with your teachings. Help us to walk the soft Earth with clear sight, as loving relatives to all creation. Aho.

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST PRAYER

Offered by Rev. Theresa I. Soto, non-binary queer Latinx Unitarian Universalist minister

Spirit of Life, In these difficult times, we ask for connection, to You, to ourselves, to one another, and to our greater purpose. We turn toward you, like a swift breeze, able to bring refreshment and life to our hearts that are burdened. We know that you know that transness is life and that You accept us and all the ways that we are, not as part of being human but as a multiplicity of expressions of love.

We call on you for strength, as the way before is long, and we have so far to travel. We travel toward Justice. Keep us focused on that. And to make that journey, we need safety and courage in equal measure. Give us both.

Soften the hearts of those who are causing their own suffering by clutching their transphobia so tightly. Show them the way back to their own humanity.

But above all, we ask for more love, around us, among us, between us. We give thanks and say amen.

"We Can't Thrive If We Don't Survive"

Last week Transforming Hearts Collective co-leader Teo Drake delivered a keynote address at the annual South Carolina HIV, STD and Viral Hepatitis Conference, held October 25–26 in Columbia, South Carolina. The theme of this year’s conference was “Thriving Together for Tomorrow.”

Teo’s keynote was titled “We Can’t Thrive If We Don’t Survive: Addressing Disparities in Access to Care for Transgender People,” and covered the current landscape faced by transgender people living with HIV, the particular barriers that HIV-positive trans people face in accessing competent care, the strengths and resilience that trans people bring forward to get their needs met, and the ways in which race, class, ability, sexuality, and gender intersect within HIV-positive trans communities and how these intersections affect disparities, access, and health outcomes.

Teo also teamed up with fellow Positively Trans National Advisory Board member Kiara St. James to deliver two workshops: “Transgender 101” and “Fighting for Survival: The Call to Center the Needs and Expertise of Transgender Women of Color.”

The Clearing Grows Through Community Conversations

The Clearing is growing! In the past year, this emerging spiritual community centering the voices, experiences, and liberation of queer and trans people of color and open to all, has been deepening its work in Durham, NC.

Transforming Hearts Collective co-leaders LeLaina Romero and Rev. Mykal Slack, along with a group of close friends and chosen family in Durham, connected around a common vision for spiritual community that none of them had found in the area, but were longing for. We co-created spaces for rest, renewal, and uplift in the midst of HB2 repeal efforts, facilitated honest and pain-filled dialogue in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, and held visioning sessions to lay the groundwork for a series of community conversations to help identify leaders and continue to cultivate and curate what this new spiritual adventure can and should be.

The first two community conversations took place this spring—the first at the LGBTQ Resource Center at North Carolina Central University and the second at the LGBTQ Center of Durham—to explore people’s hopes for spiritual community. More than thirty people participated—people of color, queer folks, and trans/non-binary folks, ranging in age from 9 months old to 60+. Our time together was filled with the sounds and feels of babies playing and elders sharing; bread being cut, salads getting dressed, soup heating up; gratitude for the openness and the willingness to share what’s real, what’s hard, and what’s good, among new friends.

We learned that, for folks to show up fully, they wanted a multigenerational, nonjudgmental space to share meals and music, be outdoors together, hear cool sermons, learn from sacred texts, and make art. We also learned that, because of past pain in spiritual spaces, understanding how to show up as an anti-oppressive, multi-faith, multi-vocal space will take time and intention.

We visioned and dreamed together, and made a plan for sharing monthly dinners, finding the joy and release of dance and moving our bodies, embracing the power of ritual, and reclaiming public space out in the world, as well as building an evolving team of visionaries and organizers that will continue to breathe life and love and meaning into this community. And we continue to dream about engaging trans/non-binary communities in altar-building in places where we gather and connecting with local artists and musicians about creating art spaces and dance parties as places for healing. Ashe!

Creating Care at Creating Change

At the annual Creating Change conference hosted by the National LGBTQ Task Force this January, attendees were able to access care and spiritual practice in two brand new ways. Along with other LGBTQ faith leaders, co-leaders of the Transforming Hearts Collective spearheaded the creation of a Spiritual Care Team and a dedicated spirituality room, the Many Paths Gathering Space.

The Spiritual Care Team is a thirty-person multi-faith, multi-racial, multi-gender, multi-generational volunteer team of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two spirit, and queer faith leaders who were "on call" throughout the conference to provide care and support to attendees in many different ways. The team also led a variety of spiritual practices in the Many Paths Gathering Space that were open to all: offerings ranged from Muslim prayer to meditation to queer-inclusive Christian prayer to Earth-centering ritual to Catholic Mass.

A highlight of the conference was an interfaith ritual held during the inauguration on January 21, where more than forty people from more than fifteen different spiritual paths had space to grieve, heal, hope, and sing together in community.